1920] SWINGLE, NEW SPECIES OF PISTACIA 105 



surprising 



lives of the large Red Haw group and some of the other Rosaceae, whose 

 fruit is so attractive and which are commonly transported through their 



gratio 



The ex- 



the fact that species 



rare or absent from most of the Edwards Plateau region and from that 

 to the southwest. 



Webb City, Missouri, April, 1920 



A NEW SPECIES OF PISTACIA NATIVE TO SOUTHWESTERN 



TEXAS, P. TEXANA 



Walter T. Swingle 



In 1859 John Torrey ^ reported Pistacia mexicana HBK. as occurring in 

 Texas in "Rocky ravines near the mouth of the Pecos, western Texas, 



October (fruit) ; Bigelow. A small tree." 



In 1891 John Coulter = included the species Pistacia mexicana HBK. in 



Western 



Mexican 



occur 



In 



Synoptical Flora and, although he had not seen the flowers, transferred the 

 species to the genus Rhus as the sole species of a new section, Pistacioides. 

 The name Rhus mexicana Gray, is cited as havang been published "in 

 Patterson, check-list, 1892, 21," but this check-list (Patterson's Numbered 

 Check-hst of North American Plants, North of Mexico, p. 21. [Oquakwa, 



1892]) gives merely a nomen nudum, "RHUS . . . 1690 Mexicana Gray." 

 with no citations of the previously published Pistacia mexieana HBK. 



In 1905 Vernon Bailey, ^ in his Biological Survey of Texas, assigns the 

 plant to Schmaltzia (a segregate of Rhus, based on Rhus aromatica. Ait.) as 

 Schmaltzia viexicana, citing Rhus mexicana and Pistacia mexicana as syno- 

 nyms, and notes its relationship to the Pistacia vera from which the pis- 

 tache nut of commerce is obtained. He goes on to say, "In places in the 

 canyons of the Rio Grande this large shrub grows in profusion, suggesting 

 that the real pistachio also might succeed here." 



Aside from occasional citations of the scanty information given in these 



» Torrey, John. Botany of the Boundary, in Emory, WUliam H., Report on the United 

 States and Mexican Boundary Survey (34th Cong. 1st Sess. Senate Ex. Doc. No. 108). II. 



pt. 1. p. 44 (Washington, 1859). , ttc xt.- i 



» Coulter, John M. Botany of Western Texas, in Contributions from the U.b. National 



Herbarium, Washington, D.C. II. 67 (June 27, 1891). 



» This is an error, as the seeds are too small to be classed as edible. 



* Gray, Asa. Synoptical Flora of North America, I. 386, also p. 881 (Part 1, fasc. 2. June 



10, 1897). 



» Bailey, Vernon. Biological Survey o 

 Agriculture). No. 25, p. 30. (Washingto 



American Fauna 



